Archive | family

hello blog and hello baby!

January 28, 2013 at 11:49 am

Well, surprise! I announced on my old blog on Friday that I would be launching my new blog today, but little did I know I would also have a new baby by today! I posted on my old blog around 2pm, got a call at 4pm from my OB that I needed to be induced, and by 7:15 I was in the hospital watching Pitocin drip down an IV and into my arm. Our son was born about 4.5 hours later, healthy and hearty and crying oh so lustily!

After much deliberation and gazing into his face, we decided to name our boy Mark Gilchrist. We will call him “Gil” for short. Gil Garber. Our little son!

I’ll share more of the birth story, the background on his name, and some photos tomorrow and Thursday. Right now we’re home from the hospital and reality is still sinking in as I gaze down at this little bundle beside me, sleeping so peacefully and trustfully, making those little newborn squeaks and grunts that I remember so well from Lena. I’m overwhelmed with love, thankfulness, and gratefulness.

I also promised you a giveaway with the launch of this blog. It’s a great giveaway… but I didn’t manage to take photos of the items before our baby was born! I will post all the details about this Italian-themed giveaway on Wednesday, so check back a little later this week for that.

If you’d like to follow along during these early days, I’m on Instagram now; my username is beccagarber. In the meantime, this mama will be snuggling with her two little loves!

43 :: in Baby Numero Due, family, giveaway, motherhood

itchy feet, baby kicks, and still waiting

January 17, 2013 at 2:38 pm

Back in the day: 2-week-old Lena. *cue heart melting*

Well, based on some excitement this morning, we thought today might be the day that our little boy would be born!

But it wasn’t. I’m still pregnant.

It all started last night when I yanked off my slippers and told Elliott, “My feet are so itchy. Why is that? So weird.” That night the itching continued and even got worse. The soles of my feet and my hands both itched, at times so much that I couldn’t sleep.

When we Googled these symptoms in the morning, we learned that they are related to cholestasis of pregnancy, a condition in which bile flow from the liver slows or stops. “Cholestasis of pregnancy,” says the Mayo Clinic, “poses no long-term risk to the mother. Cholestasis of pregnancy can be dangerous for a developing baby, however. Early delivery is usually recommended.”

Ummm… yikes!

And when I called my OB, she thought so too. We spent the morning at the hospital for a non-stress test, amniocentesis fluid level test, and several labs. The results of all of those so far show a happy, healthy, kickin’ away baby who has plenty of resources in there to keep hanging out for awhile and no apparent distress. They sent us home, all smiles, and told us to come back if the itching got much worse.

So no baby today. And thank the Lord, frankly! When I got off the phone this morning and we knew we had to go in to the hospital (and might come back with a baby), I looked around the house and felt bubbling concern. I’m not ready to have a baby! There is still so much to do! I have to organize his clothes in his room, I have to put our files in order, I have to clean the kitchen. I still haven’t packed my hospital bag or frozen a single meal!

“And,” I said to Elliott. “It’s January 17th! I don’t want to have a baby on January 17th!”

“Why not?” Elliott said, unperturbed by the possible new birthdate of our baby. “Let’s see, one-seventeen-thirteen… that adds up to 31. 31 flavors of ice cream. It would be a good birthday.”

Thank you, honey.

So not today. A little more time to prepare. A little more time to look at the mess in my house instead of look down at a little bundle in my arms. A little more time to plug through a to-do list (which will be just as long when the baby comes anyway). A little more time to realize I am worrying about the wrong things and to thank God that this–the timing, our health, our baby boy’s birthday–is all in His hands.

Did you feel ready when your baby arrived? Or were you overdue and more than ready?

16 :: in Baby Numero Due, family, motherhood, my faith, thoughts

life lately

January 14, 2013 at 2:58 pm

I haven’t shared bits and pieces of our life for awhile as captured on Instagram. It’s always so much fun to go back through the images and remember all those random memories I captured spur-of-the-moment! Here some snapshots of the ordinary and the lovely in our home:

Enjoying her beautiful alphabet magnets from her grandparents.

I love the ferns and cyclamen in the window boxes in this beautiful house

& post-bath tickles

Everyone in this house loves our new blocks (thank you, Anthony and Laura!)

& goofy girl

Modeling a sweater knit by her Aunt Eden and a bonnet knit by me

& lovely afternoon light over our town

Hours of fun with this reusable sticker pad

& admiring our finished Advent calendar: a tree full of birds

at a restaurant in town, the chef working the stone pizza oven always lets kids make their own pizza

& tired wreath on a worn door in our town

our neighborhood (Vecchia Matrice) wishes you happy holidays

& putting baby Jesus in his manger from our nativity set

I’m trying to use this purse as much as possible before I need to go back to a diaper bag in a few weeks…

& got a little growing to do into the apron her Aunt Jess gave her

my big girl on a playground on base one morning after we took Daddy to work

stories and baby bumps in bed before naptime

& not sure what she thinks of Siena helping her color

first pair of big girl undies!

& her new favorite breakfast: Greek yogurt and Charlottesville Farmer’s Market granola from Aunt Jess

sleepy kitty

& isn’t she pretty when she smiles!

11 :: in family, Instagram, Lena, life lately

Christmas morning!

December 27, 2012 at 2:25 pm

Puuuuuullll off that wrapping paper!

Oh Christmas morning in Sicily, I hope you are the start of our family Christmas tradition! It was a quiet, peaceful morning for the three of us as we opened a few gifts at a time (still haven’t opened all of them!) and ate a big Christmas breakfast together. Although we kept our gift-giving very simple for each other, our family showered us with many thoughtful presents from afar, and their evident love for us made them seem not so far away. While we loved our Christmas as a little family here in Sicily, we would have given it up in a heartbeat to share our Christmas morning with them!

Later that day we changed out of our pajamas for a Christmas party with friends at Emily and Patrick’s… and then of course as soon as we got home the pajamas went right back on and Elliott started a fire in the hearth. We finished the evening with Skype chats with our family.

One thing I couldn’t forget all day: last year my family was here for Christmas. I tried to hold Christmas Past (which included my sister Julia) hand-in-hand with Christmas Present, carrying with me the blessings as well as the aches. There is so much to be thankful for this year, truly, and even more to look forward to both in this coming year and into the future.

Did you come up with any new rituals or celebrations this year that you hope become traditions? I’m not sure what I think of spreading out the gift opening over four days…! Have you ever done that?

9 :: in family, holidays, home sweet home, husband, Lena

our book tree + Christmas cheer!

December 21, 2012 at 2:38 pm

our book tree!

now with presents… all we need is Christmas morning

Merry Christmas, dear readers! I’ve been wanting to share our holiday decor with you for awhile, but… well, until a few days ago we didn’t have a tree at all, so that would have been a bit of a bust. The other afternoon, though, I had an extra hour and decided to surprise Elliott when he came home with another book tree. We made our first one last year and loved it, as there is no better tree for budget-conscious nerds like us. (It also completely eliminates the “are we fake tree people or real tree people??” debate.) This year our tree is elevated out of the reach of little hands on my craft table, and it has made that dark corner of the living room come alive.

(By the way, I scored the cute vintage mitten wrapping paper and the retro stripe paper from IKEA earlier this week. So pretty!)

And, of course, there are the other holiday decorations for our home, like garlands on the bannisters and bows on the door (although I loved our red ones last year even more than these glittery gold bows). I also love displaying my grandmother’s gift to us: a tiny little tree from Switzerland with its precious wooden ornaments.

I will tell you that I had another tree first. It was quite beautiful and creative, and I was pleased today when Martha Stewart’s Organizing Tip of the Day email had the same idea. I took two medium-sized tree branches, spray-painted them gold, and put them in a glass vase. I then carefully hung all our beautiful handmade ornaments (again, thank you, Grammie, for your gift of a handmade ornament every year of my life!) on the branches as well as two beautiful glass ball ornaments that Elliott and I had purchased soon after we got married.

Unfortunately it was a little top heavy, I guess. It fell over. The casualty? One of those newlywed glass ornaments smashed into a million pieces! I dismantled the tree and took the branches out to the trash heap. Sorry, honey, I have a long way to go before I’m Martha!